Portion of Suit Against Missouri Governor and Staff Moved to Jefferson City
By Charles Emerick
Scott Eckersley is going back to Jefferson City.
A judge transferred part of the lawsuit by the former staff attorney for Gov. Matt Blunt to Cole County from Jackson County last week.
However, Eckersley’s defamation claim — the core of his lawsuit – - remains in Jackson County for now.
Judge Michael Manners granted part of a motion by the defendants that claimed Eckersley’s attorneys — Steve Garner and Jeff Bauer, of Strong Garner Bauer in Springfield, and Gene Graham, of White, Allinder, Graham & Buckley in Kansas City — filed the lawsuit in the wrong venue.
In January, Eckersley sued Blunt, his former chief of staff Ed Martin, former general counsel Henry Herschel, deputy commissioner of administration Richard AuBuchon and deputy chief of communications Richard Chrismer. The lawsuit claimed the defendants defamed him by releasing false information to the media and wrongly fired him for trying to report violations of the state’s Sunshine Law.
The Cole County judge that gets assigned to the case will handle three of the four charges by Eckersley: an alleged infringement of a Missouri statute that encourages exposure of state law violations; wrongful discharge in violation of public policy; and violations of the state’s Sunshine Law.
Bauer said he and Eckersley’s other attorneys do not have any intention to ask Manners to reconsider his ruling.
“We’re happy to try the case wherever is proper,” Bauer said on Monday.
As for his defamation claim, Bauer said there is a chance that it could stay before Manners or be moved to another jurisdiction.
In his petition, Eckersley claimed Jackson County was the proper jurisdiction because the defendants allegedly sent defamatory material about him to the Kansas City Star.
Manners ruled that alleged wrongdoing didn’t apply to the three counts moved to Cole County.
Next to be addressed in the case are numerous motions by the defendants to dismiss Eckersley’s case. Each of the five defendants has filed a separate motion, Bauer said.
In those motions, the defendants claimed they had executive immunity to defame Eckersley.
In Blunt’s suggestions in support of his motion to dismiss, he claimed Eckersley’s allegations fall under the State Legal Expense Fund, or SLEF. The filing claimed that the SLEF statute does not require that a state employee act “in good faith” when carrying out the acts that gave way to the cause of action.
“Even if defendants made the alleged statements, they were in a position to do so only by virtue of their positions as officials of the governor’s office and/or their alleged involvement in plaintiff’s discharge,” the suggestions state. “The discharge of a state employee from a position in the state’s executive branch concerns that branch’s initial operations and exercise of discretion in effectuating those options.”
Blunt’s attorney, Robert Hoffman, of Bryan Cave’s Kansas City office, declined to comment and referred questions to Blunt’s office. Spokeswoman Nancy Gonder declined to comment.
Bauer, who is in the process of responding to all of the motions, called the immunity defense “an interesting tactic” that took him by surprise.
“Considering they’re supposed to be public servants, I was a little shocked by that,” Bauer said. “If that was the case, the folks of Missouri should be scared witless that the government can go after you with ill motive to squash you if you get in their way.
“They’re claiming that because they worked in the governor’s office,” he added, “they are immune and can defame anybody they want when they want and you can’t do anything about it,” he added.
Originally published by Charles Emerick.
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